This time, I take on the films and filmmakers the Academy missed out on:

Blue Jasmine, Best Picture

Heralded as a brilliantly written and performed update to Tennessee Williams’ classic A Streetcar Named Desire, Woody Allen’s latest masterwork shows a wealthy New York wife spiralling into penury.

Her graceless fall -- due to her own blind eye as well as her unscrupulous, Madoff-like husband -- make this a fascinating cautionary tale; an inadvertent but unmistakable companion piece to Martin Scorsese’s The Wolf Of Wall Street.

Like that, this too should be a Best Picture nominee, and is arguably a fuller, smarter film.

Joel and Ethan Coen, Best Director

The Coen brothers are the kind of directors who deserve to be in the Best Director category pretty much by default, but Inside Llewyn Davis -- a film that gets better every time you see it -- has to rank among their loveliest and most assured pieces of work.

It’s a beautiful, affectionate, miserable tale that gives us a glimpse into the 1960s folk scene, their fictional hero ringing louder (and singing better) than many real ones from the time.

Image: Joel and Ethan Coen at a photo session in Los Angeles, CaliforniaPhotographs: David McNew/ Reuters

Frances Ha, Best Original Screenplay

It’s a simple film on the surface, but Frances Ha -- written by director Noam Baumbach and star Greta Gerwig -- is a very special film, one that nails the zeitgeist of New York as we’re currently seeing it.

The words sparkle with authentic energy and have sharp, clever edges.

This film is a bit too clever for the Oscars, sure, but should certainly have earned a Best Original Screenplay nomination.

Spike Jonze, Best Director

And while its Best Picture nomination is truly heartening, it doesn’t amount to much without recognition for the director, who has lovingly and painstakingly crafted something so superbly original that it needs to be heralded as an example to us all.

Bravo.

Image: Spike Jonze a the premiere of Her at Directors Guild of America in Hollywood erPhotographs: Kevork Djansezian/Reuters

Richard Linklater, Best Director

Before Midnight might be the third film in a series, but it’s unlike any third-installment -- and, indeed, any trilogy -- you’ve ever seen before.

Before Sunrise and Before Sunset came before this, in 1995 and 2004, respectively and Linklater’s fabulously, faithfully conversational films chart a tale of loves and lovers with unprecedented honesty.

Nobody does it quite like Linklater, and it's high time the Academy recognised that with a Best Director nomination.

Image: Richard Linklater after being awarded the Silver Bear for Best Director for his film BoyhoodPhotographs: Patrik Stollarz/Reuters

Rush, Best Picture

It might not be the very best film this year, but Ron Howard has hit a career-high with the tremendously entertaining and skilfully crafted Rush and his Rush should, by all means, be one of the Best Picture nominees even if it isn’t considered a favourite for the prize.

It’s one of the best sports films of the last few decades, and I’ll go as far as to say that this indie deserves a spot ahead of Gravity and American Hustle.

Hoyte van Hoytema, Best Cinematographer

A stunning Dutch cinematographer, van Hontema has shot such varied triumphs as Let The Right One In, The Fighter and Tinker TailorSoldier Spy.

His work in Spike Jonze’s Her, however, may just be his most inventive. It is a primarily orange film with a lot of glow and a lot of softness, but it is a very designed world and a visually immaculate film.

It’s dreamy but with edges, and van Hoytema’s work is at par with any Best Cinematographer nominee.

Rodrigo Pieto, Best Cinematographer

Mexican cinematographer Pieto is a star known for visually spectacular films like Brokeback Mountain, Biutiful and Lust, Caution, and he knocks it out of the ballpark with Scorsese’s latest.

Literally.

There is a shot in The Wolf Of Wall Street where Pieto’s camera flies like an imaginary baseball slugged by Marty’s amoral protagonist.

Visually the film is madly frisky, and Pieto is both a master of the long tracking shot Scorsese loves as well as a man willing to go out on a limb as the film gets wilder. This is heady, amazing stuff, and worthy of being a forerunner for the Best Cinematographer prize.